#Succession Contest arc

[jelloholic]

Chrollo vs. Hisoka redraw

I made this a couple months ago, but since I have nothing to post rn, here ya go

(Ignore Hisoka's shitty hair pls 🙏🏻)

[your-favourite-plague]

My incoherent stream of consciousness about chapter 405

First of all: WHAT.

Second of all: SPIDERS FOCUSED CHAPTER WOOOO

Welcome back, Hisoka "I can get turn on by kids, but I draw the line at animals and multiple people" Morrow

...although Hisoka comparing fighting Ants with bestiality is a very Hisoka thing to do, I have to admit.

LYNCH NOOO

But at least Bono has his time to shine! Finally! I love to hear his inner monologue and learn more about his personality.

Rereading chapters 392/393 feels so different now, I'm gonna analyze every word and slightest microexpression of "Hisoka" (wait, does it mean that this amazing fit was also Bono's idea??)

Zakuro said Bono has "overwhelming aura" and "he's more dangerous than anyone we've ever met". I wonder if he can somewhat mimic auras of people he impersonates, or that's his own power. He's a Spider, so neither would be that surprising tbh.

I hope there will be more about his abilities. Summoning Jupiter and changing appearance fit Conjuration, but how they fit with each other? And his dances? Does Bonolenov just have versatile interests or are those things connected in some way? (yes, I like to overthink Nen, how could you tell?)

Owl is such a peak design, good to see him/his appearance again

The Troupe cares so much about Chrollo's well-being and mental state 😭 Found family fr fr

HE'S FUCKING DEAD LETS GO 🕺🤸‍♂️🕺🤸‍♂️

(although it may affect some things in Spiderling... maybe I'll just ignore it, or assume that one dead guy doesn't solve the issue etc)

I like when characters think. And are intelligent. Like Chrollo predicting what mafia will do with Hisoka, or Nobunaga, Feitan and Phinks deducing what Heil-Ly Family is up to. In general, I think this series is very good at not making characters "stupid for the sake of plot" and making them logical or realistically illogical instead. I didn't realize how I missed it during the hiatus. Well, I assume that, by HxH tradition, nothing will go according to any plan ever made anyway, but I appreciate that those plans are good.

I have a feeling that a lot of people will be dying soon, and I don't like it, cause I got attached to a lot of those randoms but.. Morena 🥰😍💕

Mood.

Anyway, Hisoka delendus est ☝

[letters-to-rosie]

me, trying to explain the succession contest arc: so the clown guy is trying to murder all the friends of the guy who killed him, the serial killer prince might have the head of a protagonist's friend in a jar, everyone is on a boat shaped like a whale and everyone is trying to murder everyone else, the mafia is there—

[tangsakura]

A Possible Future Based On Hisoka's Fortune - HxH Predictions

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 105 (Raw)

"A red-eyed customer will visit your store. Half of them is angel, and the other is the god of death. Presumably they are hoping that you will sell the moon's secrets to them. They ought to be especially pleased about that of the frost moon.

On a hot day, with the mediation of the said customer, the two of you, the man of a reversed cross and you, are probably to be left alone together. The false fourth moon will be torn away from the calendar. With this, those that remain will become 6."

I'm gonna put it here to remind us all of Hisoka's real fortune.

We all know how Shalnark ended up dead according to the fortune he received back in Yorknew arc. Now everyone is paying attention at Shizuku's fortune and making predictions. One of the most popular of these theories is how Shizuku will die around merchandise covered in black, which are brought by the Kakin mafia or one of the princes, if I remember correctly.

So now, I shall make my own predictions on what will happen in the future HxH chapters. But this time it will be based on Hisoka's real fortune.

WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN'T READ HUNTER x HUNTER CHAPTERS 349 TO 400, ESPECIALLY 391 TO 400, DO NOT INTERACT OR READ FURTHER. Keep in mind that this is unedited, and you are bound to read some cringey parts at some point.

First Stanza:

"A red-eyed customer will visit your store. Half of them is angel, and the other is the god of death."

As Hisoka accepted Hinrigh's offer of going to VVIP room at tier 1, he's currently on his way there. The only one there who is described as a "red-eyed customer will visit your store. Half of them is angel, and the other is the god of death" is Kurapika, who is, at present, the bodyguard of 14th Prince Woble and Queen Oito.

At some point, they will meet again. They have to. There is no way that Hisoka will not go to the next banquet nor snoop around and find out what's up in the said tier. He will be there and his encounter with Kurapika for the first time since Yorknew arc is inevitable.

"Presumably they are hoping that you will sell the moon's secrets to them."

With Hisoka's presence in tier 1, Kurapika won't be able to help but wonder what happened to the Phantom Troupe, especially Chrollo, after Kurapika and the main gang left Chrollo, Hisoka and Pakunoda on top of the cliff/mountain (pls my brain isn't cooperating right now, somebody remind me), in the middle of nowhere.

Kurapika will definitely ask Hisoka about the Phantom Troupe. Presently, he wants to know about them and, obviously, he will get curious whether they are in the Black Whale or not. Remember, the Phantom Troupe is also his target, but obviously more secondary as 4th Prince Tserriednich is his first and foremost target as of this arc.

Kurapika will definitely find out that they are onboard the ship, and in all probability, Hisoka will let him know about it. After all, wouldn't Hisoka want to form an alliance again with Kurapika?

"They ought to be especially pleased about that of the frost moon."

I believe Hisoka will reveal something about the frost moon with Kurapika.

As you know, the frost moon refers to #11 of the Phantom Troupe. Back in Yorknew arc, they were referring to Uvogin. But he died. He even got a tombstone-less tomb and a requiem on the night of the underground auction. So, how is frost moon still relevant to this arc?

Well, sucks for you, but the one who replaced Uvogin is none other than this man:

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 377 (Official English Translation)

Illumi Zoldyck.

With the way he is acting at the moment and how he divulged his assassination deal with Hisoka is making him super suspicious. There has been so many theories about him being Hisoka and so on because of how sus he is at the moment.

Though the theory about him being Hisoka has been debunked as of the current available chapters, you cannot deny that this is not merely just a "kill me and my engagement ring to or prenup with you is that you get paid". There's something more going on here.

I predict that he and Hisoka are on cahoots with each other. Surely, Hisoka had a deal with him, but I think it's more of helping him destroy the Spiders from the inside and so Illumi can save Kalluto from Hisoka's murder plan.

If it is true that Hisoka and Illumi are working together because Hisoka asked him to just like in Yorknew and Illumi can save his younger sibling, then Kurapika will be pleased. Because that's less spiders he has to worry with, considering that he also has to get closer to Prince Tserriednich to take back the remaining scarlet eyes, while also helping Queen Oito and Prince Woble survive the succession war.

(At this point, you may take a break. Resume reading once you are ready.)

Second Stanza:

"On a hot day, with the mediation of the said customer, the two of you, the man of a reversed cross and you, are probably to be left alone together. "

I am mostly onboard with the prediction that Kurapika and Hisoka will come up with some sort of agreement regarding the Troupe. Kurapika already has too many things in his plate regarding the succession war with the remaining princes and how he will get close in contact with Prince Tserriednich. It won't come into surprise if Kurapika asks Hisoka for a helping hand or accept Hisoka's offer of his own kind of alliance, which I think he would do just like in Yorknew. But I think this time Hisoka will warn him not to remove Chrollo's nen. xD

Hisoka will perhaps help him take out some of the members. I feel that he will go for Shizuku and/or Bonolenov first. They are currently with Chrollo, so perhaps with Kurapika's help or someone's help, Chrollo can get separated from them, and then he can kill Shizuku and Bonolenov right then and there.

But we can also take into account that the closes Spiders to Hisoka right now are Nobunaga, Phinks, Feitan, and most likely Franklin and Machi. He can go for one of them first, as well. But I really feel like Shizuku and Bonolenov will die and I'll explain why in a short bit.

And of course, the one I'm most excited about is the showdown between Hisoka and Machi. I'm so ready to witness the best tragic romance of all times

Later on, Kurapika will maybe help him get another chance to be alone with Chrollo in return of him getting rid of some of the Troupe members. The ship is on the way to the false Dark Continent right now, so maybe he can set up a place there where Hisoka and Chrollo can face off. And it will be hot on that place on that day.

But it can also be that because of Kurapika, Hisoka and Chrollo will be alone together in the Black Whale ship, whether intentional or not. But how can it be a hot day in a ship, especially later when they can no longer go out of the premises due to the unpredictable travel conditions?

When the whole ship is in chaos and on fire. Now that will be wild, but not impossible.

"The false fourth moon will be torn away from the calendar."

In Yorknew arc, the false fourth moon was Hisoka, the former #4 of the Spiders. His allegiance to the spider was never true and he was willing for the existence of the Spider to perish.

But the one to replace him was Kalluto Zoldyck, the youngest member of the famous Zoldyck family.

As of now, it looks like he is getting along with them, and based on chapter 377 and 380, he has found some sort of comfort with them.

I mean look at Kalluto sitting near Machi, whom I previously analyzed based off of her speech language as someone considerate to kids.

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 377 (Official English Translation)

And how she is reacting when Illumi revealed to Mizai about everyone in the Phantom Troupe onboard the ship.

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 380 (Official English Translation)

Even so, how can Kalluto be a false fourth moon?

Because he is a Zoldyck.

At some point in the current arc, he will have to choose between the Zoldyck family and the Spiders, considering the fact that Illumi is most likely in cahoots with Hisoka, who is trying to kill the Spiders and have a rematch with Chrollo, perhaps.

And he will definitely choose the family. Because before he is a Phantom Troupe member, he is a Zoldyck. Knowing the dynamics of the family and all of that, I think he will have no choice but to choose his own biological family over the one he found some comfort with. Thus, he has always been a false fourth moon, just like Hisoka.

"With this, those that remain will become 6."

Whether this happens before, during, or after the Hisoka and Chrollo being alone together on a hot day, it doesn't matter. I predict that there will be six members of the Phantom Troupe left, including Chrollo.

And you know what's funny, I think the ones who will have to die are Shizuku and Bonolenov, as I stated previously.

Because:

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 397 (Unofficial English Translations)

The ones who will be left will be the original Phantom Troupe members.

Originally, there are nine members. But three of them are already dead: Pakunoda, Uvogin and Shalnark.

When Shizuku and Bonolenov dies, the ones who will be left will be Nobunaga, Phinks, Feitan, Franklin, Machi, and Chrollo.

The original six.

I really think that if this will be the case, then we have a big potential or two when it comes to exploring the dynamics and relationships between the founding members. We have already witnessed the tension and conflict between the founding members when Chrollo was kidnapped by Kurapika back in Yorknew.

So this time it'll be interesting if we see it once again. And it'll be better if six of them are alive, but Chrollo is alone with Hisoka and they are far away from the other five. It'll be another dilemma for them once again. Do you save Chrollo or do you live on and keep the Spider alive?

And it'll be more interesting if the other people's predictions that the Hei-Ly family had something to do with Sarasa's death and the six founding members finds out about this and ends up being face to face with the benefactor.

These two events can tie into the Spiders' backstory a lot with the former possibly igniting or making them recollect the strong bonds that existed back on that day in the forest and the latter resolving the grudge and guilt they have been carrying since childhood.

Also, having the six founding members dying at the same time or together can be melancholic and sorrowful. A tragic and sad ending, but which provided them resolution and catharsis.

And that's about it. I hope you enjoyed reading my predictions. This post has been in my drafts since the day before my birthday last year and I just completed it in one sitting. Finally, I posted something decent after a long time.

Anyways, I'll go to sleep now. It's like 2 or 3 am here right now.

Until then.

[muri-em]

I'm catching up with HxH so I wanted to doodle something.

I love the Xi-Yu's.

[dee-rrh]

I get why some people are bothered by the amount of text in Hunter x Hunter (but I also don't tbh), however I really appreciate it.

It's fitting for this arc. Everyone is stressed out, they're considering every single option before acting on anything, analyzing their enemies and their respective powers/standing. They're spiraling. There *is* a lot going on and the characters are attempting to comprehend these things.

We've got this constant noise in this arc because of this. And that makes a scene like this one in 403 all the more effective. All of a sudden it's quiet -the noise is cut off - and that feels even worse. You just know something is about to happen. It's so eerie. I love it so so so much!!!

I feel like I can hear his footsteps and his breathing just by looking at this.

[basedkikuenjoyer]

The Succession Contest Poll

Surely this has been done but I think it's a nice bit of fun before we dive back into another leg of HxH. Simple poll, who'd you bet on in the Kakin Succession Contest as of Chapter 400? No easy way out for results, you're betting house money so take a stand:

[kaijudyke]

i'm completely obsessed with the worldbuilding of hunter x hunter. it's clearly not our world, there are countries that don't exist in reality and there are weird creatures and abilities and everything like it's very clearly its own unique world not just a fantasy version of our world, but at the same time things that explicitly canonically exist in the hxh universe include christianity, the british monarchy*, the country of japan, and death note

*in the 1999 anime specifically

[unclefungusthegoat]

.

[writingwithfolklore]

5 Tips for Creating Intimidating Antagonists

Antagonists, whether people, the world, an object, or something else are integral to giving your story stakes and enough conflict to challenge your character enough to change them. Today I’m just going to focus on people antagonists because they are the easiest to do this with!

1. Your antagonist is still a character

While sure, antagonists exist in the story to combat your MC and make their lives and quest difficult, they are still characters in the story—they are still people in the world.

Antagonists lacking in this humanity may land flat or uninteresting, and it’s more likely they’ll fall into trope territory.

You should treat your antagonists like any other character. They should have goals, objectives, flaws, backstories, etc. (check out my character creation stuff here). They may even go through their own character arc, even if that doesn’t necessarily lead them to the ‘good’ side.

Really effective antagonists are human enough for us to see ourselves in them—in another universe, we could even be them.

2. They’re… antagonistic

There’s two types of antagonist. Type A and Type B. Type A antagonist’s have a goal that is opposite the MC’s. Type B’s goal is the same as the MC’s, but their objectives contradict each other.

For example, in Type A, your MC wants to win the contest, your antagonist wants them to lose.

In Type B, your MC wants to win the contest, and your antagonist wants to win the same contest. They can’t both win, so the way they get to their goal goes against each other.

A is where you get your Draco Malfoy’s, other school bullies, or President Snow’s (they don’t necessarily want what the MC does, they just don’t want them to have it.)

B is where you get the other Hunger Games contestants, or any adventure movie where the villain wants the secret treasure that the MCs are also hunting down. They want the same thing.

3. They have well-formed motivations

While we as the writers know that your antagonist was conceptualized to get in the way of the MC, they don’t know that. To them, they exist separate from the MC, and have their own reasons for doing what they do.

In Type A antagonists, whatever the MC wants would be bad for them in some way—so they can’t let them have it. For example, your MC wants to destroy Amazon, Jeff Bezos wants them not to do that. Why not? He wants to continue making money. To him, the MC getting what they want would take away something he has.

Other motivations could be: MC’s success would take away an opportunity they want, lose them power or fame or money or love, it could reveal something harmful about them—harming their reputation. It could even, in some cases, cause them physical harm.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be true, but the antagonist has to believe it’s true. Such as, if MC wins the competition, my wife will leave me for them. Maybe she absolutely wouldn’t, but your antagonist isn’t going to take that chance anyway.

In Type B antagonists, they want the same thing as the MC. In this case, their motivations could be literally anything. They want to win the competition to have enough money to save their family farm, or to prove to their family that they can succeed at something, or to bring them fame so that they won’t die a ‘nobody’.

They have a motivation separate from the MC, but that pesky protagonist keeps getting in their way.

4. They have power over the MC

Antagonists that aren’t able to combat the MC very well aren’t very interesting. Their job is to set the MC back, so they should be able to impact their journey and lives. They need some sort of advantage, privilege, or power over the MC.

President Snow has armies and the force of his system to squash Katniss. She’s able to survive through political tension and her own army of rebels, but he looms an incredibly formidable foe.

Your antagonist may be more wealthy, powerful, influential, intelligent, or skilled. They may have more people on their side. They are superior in some way to the protagonist.

5. And sometimes they win

Leading from the last point, your antagonists need wins. They need to get their way sometimes, which means your protagonist has to lose. You can do a bit of a trade off that allows your protagonist to lose enough to make a formidable foe out of their antagonist, but still allows them some progress using Fortunately, Unfortunately.

It goes like… Fortunately, MC gets accepted into the competition. Unfortunately, the antagonist convinces the rest of the competitors to hate them. Fortunately, they make one friend. Unfortunately, their first entry into the competition gets sabotaged. Fortunately, they make it through the first round anyway, etc. etc.

An antagonist that doesn’t do any antagonizing isn’t very interesting, and is completely pointless in their purpose to heighten stakes and create conflict for your protagonist to overcome. We’ll probably be talking about antagonists more soon!

Anything I missed?

[your-favourite-plague]

My subjective ranking of which Kakin prince should win because I'm stressed beyond human comprehension and need distraction

1. 2nd Prince Camilla 😳 2nd Prince Camilla 💕 2nd Prince Camilla 😭

Probably she would be an awful king, but she could kill me and I would thank her.

2. 3rd Prince Zhang Lei

I think he's a cool, reliable guy. He is the king in my heart (and of my heart?). If he'll turn out to be evil, I will feel personally betrayed and hurt.

3. 5th Prince Tubeppa

She didn't have much time to shine, but she seems to be intelligent and trustworthy, a good fit for a king.

4. 9th Prince Halkenburg

The succession battle costs him too much emotionally, but I'm sure he would be a solid king. But why does he like Tserriednich? Sus.

5. 10th Prince Kacho and 11th Prince Fugetsu

Double king for the win. The perfect ending we should have gotten.

6. 6th Prince Tyson

Too precious for this world, politics don't deserve her.

7. 7th Prince Luzurus

Doesn't really strike me as a person interested in ruling or a dedicated future king, but not the worst choice.

8. 8th Prince Sasa-Lélé

A perfect material for a puppet king, but he's a nice guy overall. His Nen beast could make Kakin quite a peaceful nation, which is always good.

9. 12th Prince Momoze, 13th Prince Marayam and 14th Prince Woble

They're kids. It's hard to judge how they would rule the country.

10. 1st Prince Benjamin

He would declare a martial law the second the crown touches his head.

11. 4th Prince Tserriednich

This man should be kept as far from any position of power as possible. Preferably kept in the casket.

[eglcntine-archived]

[ illumi zoldyck tags ]

ˏˋ°•⁀➷    ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   IC      ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   AESTHETIC      ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   MUSINGS      ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   HEADCANONS      ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   PLEASURES      ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   SELF      ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   V : HUNTER EXAM ARC      ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   V : YORKNEW CITY ARC      ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   V : CHIMERA ANT ARC     ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   V : 13TH HUNTER CHAIRMAN ELECTTION ARC    ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

ˏˋ°•⁀➷     ILLUMI ZOLDYCK        *   V : SUCCESSION CONTEST ARC     ‚   everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted  .

[tangsakura]

Imagine Togashi having already drawn the meeting of Kurapika and Hisoka on the first tier of the black whale..........

[littledeadling]

You probably know by now that I’m quite taken with my DND character, Horatio. In this post I’m going to explain him (with pictures!!) so you can enjoy him too, and follow along with his story if you want!

~~~~

Let’s start with the man himself:

~Horatio Ignatius Heronwillow III~

Horatio is a human paladin knight following the Oath of Glory. Also, he’s a pompous bitch with an ego the size of a small country.

Horatio’s character arc is all about getting humbled over and over again. Maybe he’s not the best. He’s not even second best. Maybe he’s even…pathetic. Despite all his training? His many successful battles? His prestige? What does any of that matter if his Queen doesn’t trust him to be her champion? If the Queen doesn’t even like him?

Horatio is from the nation of Thrane. He introduces himself as “the gilded knight of Fort Light, first at her majesty’s royal table.” He’s an ardent follower of the Queen, even though she’s merely a figurehead—the Church of the Silver Flame holds all the power. He is considered weird for this. His family are all noble elitists, and their support for him is conditional. Even though he’s become such a high-ranking knight, he’s never good enough.

But we can’t truly discuss Horatio until we meet his nemesis/rival/best friend/worst enemy (who he’s totally obsessed with, and who happens to be a centaur). His name is Elethar Sigrún.

Elethar came to the castle when they were both young (for ~unknown reasons~), and they trained to be knights alongside each other. Despite being the only centaur in the kingdom and not of royal birth, Elethar immediately usurped Horatio as the Queen’s most promising young knight, thus beginning a lifelong rivalry.

Does Horatio have feelings for Elethar? Not that he’s aware of. This is because he is stupid. Does Elethar feel anything for Horatio (besides pity and disdain)? Unclear!

~The Dragonshard Derby~

Now that we’ve met our hero, lets turn to the story!

The players are all entrants in The Dragonshard Derby: a mounted cross-continent race hosted by a rich and famous duke. To the winner goes the spoils: a great dragon’s hoard, and glory for their chosen nation. Obviously, Horatio is racing for Thrane. One hundred contestants are participating, riding everything from regular horses to owlbears to dinosaurs (dinosaurs are normal in Eberron 😳).

Horatio’s mount is a golden Akhal-Teke horse named Marvellous Moondance. She’s the light of his life. Despite his competitive nature, he would never push her past her limits. He puts her safety above all else.

Much to his chagrin, Elethar is also running in the race. Apparently the Queen had a special, secret mission for him, which she didn’t tell Horatio about. He persuades Elethar to confide: there’s an artefact rumoured to be among the dragon’s hoard that the Queen desires. Neither of them are sure what it is. Horatio promises that if he encounters it, he will give it to Elethar.

~The World of Eberron~

The campaign is set in a world called Eberron. The road is dangerous! We’ll be journeying though many different terrains, including the Mournland, a desolate wasteland which was once a great nation. Less than five years ago, during the war, a white fog filled the nation of Cyre from border to border and killed everyone inside. The cause of this was unknown, but it led to a tenuous end to the fighting. Horatio and Elethar were both on the front lines when it happened. They witnessed people across the border dying in agony. Horatio still has nightmares.

The Dragonshard Derby is the first time since then that the other nations have come together to put the past behind them in friendly sport. Evaluators will be watching from airships to make sure there's no foul play, though their vision is limited whenever racers are passing through the woods. Any teleportation is strictly prohibited.

~The Race So Far~

Each leg of the race begins with a sprint. In the first sprint, Horatio finished first in his section, but 11th overall. Elethar placed actually first, and gave Horatio polite congratulations once the scores had been posted. Horatio was pissed. This was supposed to be his chance to prove himself to the Queen! Why did Elethar have to be here and show him up? He ruins everything! And he’s so effortless about it, too. He never loses his composure, ever. Horatio wishes he could be like that.

During the first leg (a multi-day ride through the forest and plains), two riders were murdered under mysterious circumstances. Both had placed within the top ten. Their belongings had been trashed, searched through. As frustrated as Horatio was with Elethar’s presence, he’s now more just worried for his well-being. After all, Elethar is racing alone.

Then, when Horatio’s party was still a day’s ride away from the second sprint, something strange happened.

While fighting off a band of raiders, the world suddenly froze for Horatio. A strange light appeared in the sky, drawing him towards it. The moment he touched it, he felt something write itself into the skin of his arm. A mysterious lantern appeared in his bag, glowing with ethereal purple light. It would later become clear that the lantern will always appear back in Horatio’s bag, no matter where he leaves it. And, he discovered, he now has access to new magics that he was previously incapable of. This was all VERY ALARMING.

Anyway, back to Horatio’s arm. Something important in Eberron is the concept of dragonmarks. There are twelve great Dragonmarked Houses (basically powerful mob families) which each share a unique dragonmark- a sigil that appears somewhere on the body at puberty and grants powerful magic. There are also aberrant dragonmarks, which is when a combination of two other sigils appears on someone not from a Dragonmarked House (usually when there have been mixed relations between Houses). There’s a lot of political baggage attached. And Horatio suddenly has one, at the ripe age of 35. To make matters worse, it’s not a normal dragonmark OR a known aberrant, but something entirely new.

He chose not to tell his party anything about this.

Then, it was time for the sprint to the next checkpoint. Horatio started strong, but again, Elethar swept in and beat him right at the finish line. He congratulated Horatio on the race. Embarrassing him further, Elethar presented Horatio with this letter he had just received from the queen:

Sir Elethar Sigrún, First Knight to Queen Diani ir’Wynarn My earnest congratulations on placing first on the primary leg of this great race. I would expect nothing less of my finest knight. Of course, you are missed at the castle, but I am honoured by the diligence with which you have chosen to pursue the purpose I have set out for you. I am sure that you will earn the respect of the kingdom, should you succeed, and I am pleased to hear of your success so far. It will be essential that you continue to maintain this position, else my favour lies elsewhere. Loyal Elethar, I wish you great fortune, and may the blessing of the Silver Flame be upon you. Her Majesty, Queen Diani ir’Wynarn PS. Please tell Sir Heronwillow I am being informed of his standing in the race as well.

…Crushing.

He’d been considering telling Elethar of his troubles, but after that he was too upset to broach the subject.

Now that they’ve made it to the checkpoint, there are official tents with beds for everyone (with sleeping arrangements decided by race standing), a small market, and a mess hall with dinner provided.

During the meal, a friendly fellow racer named Ash attempted to flirt with one of Horatio’s party members, offering him a strange glowing flower he’d found nearby. Horatio immediately recognized it as being similar to his lantern. When his teammate turned down the flower, Horatio asked if he could have it. Ash took this the wrong way. He let Horatio know he was really, super not his type, and would not be giving him the flower. Double ouch.

That night (in the dead of it), a pack of wild raptors invaded the tents where the racers were sleeping. The party managed to kill them before they hurt anyone, but Horatio detected that the animals were all under an enchantment. Their real purpose had been to attempt to steal the flower and take it... somewhere. To someone. Was this what the killers from the first leg had been seeking? None of it bodes very well for Horatio!

The next evening, Horatio dragged Elethar to the edge of the camp where they could not be overheard, and nervously confided in him. The dragonmark, the lantern—everything. He was a bundle of nerves, but… It went well! Elethar was very alarmed, and told Horatio not to let ANYONE else find out. Not even the Queen. Especially not the Queen. Horatio was equal parts thrilled by Elethar’s willingness to share a secret with him, and terrified to keep anything hidden from the woman who basically controls his life. I drew a comic about this conversation. It was too good of a scene not to draw. 🫣)

Well, that’s where we left off last session! Thanks so much for reading, and meeting my guy! I love him and I hope you like him too! 💖

Stay tuned for a little intro post about the rest of the party! :•) I’ll link that here as well!

To be continued! (Probably in a month or so)

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